Phonograph
- Record
FlCURE 20. Visual rendition of the principle underlying Codet's Theorem: two back-to-
back mappings which have an unexpected boomeranging effect. The first is from groove-
patterns to sounds, carried out by a phonograph. The second-familiar, but usually ignored-
is from sounds to vibrations of the phonograph. Note that the second mapping exists indepen-
dently of the first one,for any sound in the vicinity, not just ones produced by the phonograph
itself, will cause such vibrations. The paraphrase of Codet's Theorem says that for any record
player, there are records which it cannot play because they will cause its indirect self-
destruction. [Drawing by the author.]Implicit Meanings of the Contracrostipunctus
What about implicit meanings of the Dialogue? (Yes, it has more than one
of these.) The simplest of these has already been pointed out in the
paragraphs above-namely, that the events in the two halves of the
dialogue are roughly isomorphic to each other: the phonograph becomes a
violin, the Tortoise becomes Achilles, the Crab becomes the Tortoise, the
grooves become the etched autograph, etc. Once you notice this simple
isomorphism, you can go a little further. Observe that in the first half of the
story, the Tortoise is the perpetrator of all the mischief, while in the second
half, he is the victim. What do you know, but his own method has turned
around and backfired on him! Reminiscent of the backfiring of the records'
music-or the goblet'S inscript.ion-or perhaps of the Tortoise's
boomerang collection? Yes, indeed. The story is about backfiring on two
levels, as follows ...Level One: Goblets and records which backfire;
Level Two: The Tortoise's devilish method of exploiting implicit
meaning to cause backfires-which backfires.Therefore we can even make an isomorphism between the two levels of the
story, in which we equate the way in which the records and goblet
boomerang back to destroy themselves, with the way in which the Tortoise's
own fiendish method boomerangs back to get him in the end. Seen this(^84) ConSistency, Completeness, and Geometry